New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Monday met the families of eight former India Navy officers who have been handed the death sentences in Qatar.
The minister said he fully shared the “concerns and pain of the families”, underscoring that the government was attaching the highest importance to the case.
In a post on X, Jaishankar said the government “will continue to make all efforts to secure their release”, adding he would closely coordinate with the families in the matter.
On Thursday, the eight men were handed the death sentence by Qatar’s Court of First Instance.
While the charges against the veterans — Captain Navtej Singh Gill (retd), Captain Saurabh Vasisht (retd), Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd), Captain Birendra Kumar Verma (retd), Commander Sugunakar Pakala (retd), Commander Sanjeev Gupta (retd), Commander Amit Nagpal (retd), and former sailor Ragesh — have not been made public, sources confirmed that the allegations were with regard to the leaking of sensitive information.
Arrested in August last year for alleged espionage, the veterans formerly worked for the private firm Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, owned by an Omani national who was arrested last year and eventually let off.
The company formerly carried out projects with Qatar’s armed forces.
Sources said that the former Indian Navy officers’ detention by the Qatari Ministry of Interior’s State Security Bureau on 30 August last year was based on suspicion of them having shared some unspecified information with unauthorised people, ThePrint reported on Sunday.
India has called the verdict deeply shocking, and that it would explore all legal action to free the men. The ministry also added that it would continue to extend all consular and legal assistance to the men. “We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities,” the ministry said in a statement.
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